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Smile is a representation of
happiness. We all want to live happily all through our lives which means we all
just want to keep smiling. What makes a smile apart from the actual reason
behind it? The lips, the spread nose that’s sitting just above the lips and
most importantly the teeth. We use so many expensive cosmetics and some even go
for a cosmetic surgery to look good. But what good does all of these do if our
teeth don’t shine when we smile? What good does it do if our dental arrangement
is so horrible? We don’t give so much importance to our teeth as much as we
give to other organs and parts of the body.

A middle class person can relate to
this well. Our parents will get so alarmed if their eyes pains or hearing
ability diminish a bit but when they lose a tooth they will not want to visit
the dentist assuming that it’s a waste of their money. How true is this? Recently
I met a dentist at Apollo White Dental Clinic. He said that dental health is as
much important as your ear heath or eye heath. I just smiled when he said that.
I was under the impression that he was trying to sell his business by making it
sound so important. But as he explained further I understood that he had a
point. What plays the key role in keeping someone healthy? The food that we
take in. If we don’t eat well for a week
we feel so weak and fall sick easily. If you have a tooth ache or a missing
tooth how well do you eat? Obviously, the intake of a person when his dental
health is good is higher compared to when his dental health isn’t as good as
perfect. I immediately made a mental note of this point to quote to my mom and
dad who always think fixing a teeth is only an addition to their facial
structure, helping their facial skin not getting saggy. Now I had a valid
reason for them not to feel guilty about spending thousands for their visit to
the dentist. They spent it for their good health and not just looks.

Before I met the doctor I was waiting
in the reception. I went to the Sanitorium/Tambaram Apollo White Dental clinic.
The waiting area was wonderfully kept with a very friendly front office
executive welcoming people and getting their details filled in a form.

Later I was taken in to meet the
doctor. Dr. Sugumar was so much interested in explaining the different services
to me even before he asked me what I was there for. That’s one quality every
dentist should have. That immediately makes us get into a friendly zone and ask
ourselves why we were there to take the service we were there for. He explained
to me the difference between teeth whitening and teeth cleaning. Whitening is a
process in which the dentist would apply acids on our teeth and let it scrap our
dullness along with a tiny layer of the enamel itself. It was nice of him to
explain this to me instead of just making me sit and apply acids just for the
huge fee. He also said it’s not about the service being harmful or harmless it’s
about what the patient needs and why he/she requires whitening. Understanding
my need he suggested that I just get my teeth scaled. Examining my teeth,
making me remain silent without asking questions to him (toughest part of the
day), he said I had followed a good brushing technique. (Tasting toothpaste and
complaining about the salt not being enough in it is a technique? I wanted to
ask but I decided otherwise.) Luckily, I did not have any teeth issues like
decay. But I had a very poor dental arrangement that was making it difficult
for my brush to remove dirt from the area between two cris-cross teeth. He said
it wasn’t a big problem if I met my dentist once in six months for scaling.

Once the scaling was done, I resumed
my questioning mode. I always wanted to ask dentists about the famous “Golden
Teeth” era. (Thanga Pallu) and why it went out of fashion gradually. There was
a time in Tamil cinema when all the rich villains would have one or two golden
teeth. Doctor laughed and said that gold was the best metal to be used in
dentistry to the false tooth. Due to its expensiveness they have other
substitutes today to make false teeth or crowning affordable for people. Apollo
Dental White is the only dental clinic in India that still uses gold for dental
crowning based on the patient’s interest.

Dr. Sugumar

Also Dr. Sugumar said how dental arrangement
in human has evolved over time. Most of us have the wisdom tooth issue, don’t
we? It’s because human’s intake has shifted from raw food to processed food so
the usage of the wisdom teeth has reduced so much. Over a period of time this
teeth slowly disappears from the dental arrangement through the generations.
Two generations later this teeth won’t even be there under gums like how it is
today.

He was also talking about the future
of dentistry where they are moving towards pain-reduced-processes. It was
interesting to know that people are researching on making a tablet that can be
bit between teeth to make a false teeth get crowned at its place.

The equipment that the clinic uses
are all latest ones is what I heard. They have a one stop point for all the
dental problems. They don’t hand out forms referring you a xray or scan center.
They have them all in each of their clinics which is one reason why one should
choose Apollo. Also they have all dental services and experts of different issues
at the same clinic. So it’s an overall solution to all the dental problems.
They also have the latest xray machine which let’s the doctor just concentrate
on one teeth or all of them as an overall picture and take an xray (OPG) Please
find the scary one of my teeth below.